We recently took a short tour of a few expensive, incompatible H.O.M.E.  projects so we could all get a feel for what the ordinance actually allows.    We want to share a few more of these projects.   We have also mapped the H.O.M.E. projects to show where they are currently located.

Let’s continue the tour to see if these H.O.M.E.s would fit in next to your house.

First Stop.  Here are three units built under H.O.M.E. on a (SF-3) lot in East Austin.  A modest, affordable house was towed away to make way for this luxury “price upon request” trio of units.    Which looks more affordable?

Second Stop. These 3 units are located in Bouldin Creek, each with its own heated pool.  Unit 2 (smaller unit) is offered at $1,299,000.    Before the City quietly changed the H.O.M.E. acronym, it stood for Home Opportunities for Middle-Income Empowerment. But the developer did not have middle-income housing in mind: “Welcome to luxury living in Bouldin.”  That luxury living is in a “fully gated compound” with a “crown jewel 4th floor rooftop deck” which is “engineered to accommodate a cold plunge and sauna.”

Our third stop stays in Bouldin Creek, where three units – each 1,450 sf in size and with a pool – are marketed at $1.3 million apiece. Nothing reflects “middle-income empowerment” like a $1.3M H.O.M.E. with a private pool.

While not every H.O.M.E. development is prohibitively expensive or grossly incompatible, the point is that any regulation or standard that would keep them from being so was stripped away or omitted in deference to the profit-driven market. Had the City wanted to promote affordable housing, or even middle-income housing, it could have restricted the size of H.O.M.E. units, prohibited luxury features like pools, and required that any third unit be justified through affordability guarantees rather than granted automatically. Instead, it gifted these entitlements to investors and developers, allowing them to maximize their profits.

Unfortunately, the City is just getting started.  They want to extend the breadth and reach of  H.O.M.E.  in early December. The City is right now considering more units on lots, extending mixed-use buildings from corridors into residential neighborhoods, and allowing small buildings in the front yards of single-family homes to operate as small retail stores. Instead of continuing to undermine neighborhoods, the City should reform H.O.M.E.

To be continued.